x marks the dance mix

Punky meets funky in this week's Sunday b-side selection ripped from the flip side of X's 1984 "Wild Thing" 12-incher:

X - True Love Pt. #2 (Club Remix)

It's more reminscent of the B-52's than the Bukowskian punk rock sound the legendary L.A. quartet was most famous for, but that's the mid-1980's for you. Things were different then.

Even though I was a fan of the X before I even met Maura, I can't help but think of them as one of "her" bands, partly because she was the one who instituted the mandatory X requirement for in-car mix CDs (before Super Lumina's CD player shit the bed and we switched to using a Zune for driving music). Maura got a chance to see the original line-up of the band during the Boston leg of their 31st anniversary tour a couple weeks back, a performance she succinctly described as "awesome."

She also got the opportunity to add the following photo featuring X guitarist Billy Zoom...


...to her small collection of "Maura hugs her punk rock heroes" shots. (See also.)

let her fly through the fury of the race

It’s roller derby night! The Boston Massacre goes up against Baltimore’s Mobtown Maulers at the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington at 6:00 PM tonight. I won’t be there, given my general dislike of crowd scenes, but the wife will shouting her support for the local team from the stands.

I don’t really get roller derby, no matter how many times the principles have been explained to me. My better half, though, has become a diehard fan of the newfangled, punk rock iteration of the sport. She attends all the local matches, follows the national scene via the internet, and had undertaken a rigorous personal training program to get in shape for the Boston Derby Dames tryouts coming up in June. I support her ambitions, partly because any outlet for her natural aggressiveness that does not involve me as a target can only be a good thing. (I kid. Sort of.)

As for the possibility that I will become a roller derby widower, I don’t mind. They also serve who only sit and make themed music posts…

Jim Croce – Roller Derby Queen (from Life and Times, 1973) – From a conversation my father and I had about roller derby a while back:

Dad: “That singer I like who died in a plane crash did a song about roller derby.”

Me: “Ricky Nelson?”

Dad: “No, that one guy I liked, you know?”

Me: “John Denver? Buddy Holly? Otis Redding? Glenn Miller? The guys from Lynyrd Skynyrd?”

(I knew who he meant, but dickishness runs in my family, and it’s rare I get a chance to turn the tables on the master practitioner. It could have been worse. He could have said “that one guy who overdosed.”)

Phil Ochs – Kansas City Bomber (from The War Is Over, 1988) – I like Raquel Welch as much as the next guy, but in the 70’s roller derby exploitation film sweepstakes, I have to award the crown to Unholy Rollers, by virtue of my long-standing crush on the late Claudia Jennings.

The Soviettes – Roller Girls (from LP III, 2005) – Along with the Au Pairs, The Soviettes are a case where I know my evangelism on the band’s behalf on this site has paid off in terms of convincing people to go out and buy their stuff. It’s a damn shame that the band is currently on hiatus, given how strong the material on their last album was.